RAID Array being blown away when CamCorder inserted or removed

This is a strange problem at best.
I have six external drives on my G5 in an unequal mix of FW-400 and USB. The issue is with two of the former when combined in a RAID-0 or RAID-1 array.
Both of the disks in this array (Western Digital 320GB FW-400) are of the same make and model. There are never any issues unless and until such time as I insert or remove a Sony CamCorder: the array is blown away. Gone. It does not matter if the Camera is on or off when inserted or removed. Albeit part of the chain, the Camera is attached to another device altogether via FW.
This will happen without exception each and every time.
Anyone have any ideas what's going on here?
Thanks,
Lyman

Hi Lyman;
This doesn't sound like the best designed implementation of RAID. Generally it is recommended that everything try to be kept as same as possible for the various part of the RAID array. Since the overall performance of a RAID array is determined by the slowest link which in your case would be the USB, I seriously doubt that it will have stellar performance.
What is probably happening is that the camcorder is changing the Firewire bus enough to disrupt the RAID array. I doubt that there is any way to fix this short of putting the RAID array on it's own buss using a card in one of the expansion slots. That would leave the computer's Firewire for the camcorder.
What ever you do stop using USB for RAID. USB is never going to be able to give you good enough performance to be worthwhile.
Allan

Similar Messages

Raid array being seen as 2 individual drives

Hi. Here is the issue as posted in other places. Still searching for the answer to this one.
Specs:
K7n2 delta2 platinum with b50 bios
2x1gb crucial pc3200 2.5cas ram
AMD Barton 2500
2 x 160gb 7200rpm 8mb cache SATA Samsung Hdd's
Thermaltake 430w psu
Gainward fx5700 ultra graphics
OS's: original xp corp, slipstreamed xp corp sp2
raid drivers: nvraid.sys v4.27, 5.10, 5.11 (also the needed nvatabus.sys with those)
I am NOT overclocked.
fsb 166
1:1 ram/cpu
no spread spectrum or other garbage
ddr400 patch disabled
PSU gives presumably stable reading (according to what I see), with amperage ratings above the required.
checked and rechecked cables for bad ones
ran mulitple scans on drives, all come up drives OK
I HAVE installed into Raid 0 already, this is not an issue of hardware failure as far as I am concerned.
So here is the scenario
I have properly set up the array, using correct bios settings and the raid setup utility, for a raid 0 array of those 2 hdd's listed. When booting into xp, either version, I have used all 3 of the driver sets listed. I have been reinstalling to do some performance tests on different configurations.
Anyway, for the last few nights I have been trying to get the windows setup to see the raid 0 array as one 300gb drive. It does not, no matter what I try. It sees them as 2 drives, each being 160gb (or thereabouts). These drives are matched, same firmware, same lot, so that should not be an issue.
I have used numberous tools to delete the mbr on the drives, both in an array and as single drives. I have done the same as well as tried an install and formatted each drive individually, still the same effect when the raid array is recreated.
Basically, I can find no good reason why the array is seen as individuals and not as an array. It is interesting to note, that even though xp setup sees the the array as 2 drives, I can complete the text based portion of setup. However, rebooting to start the GUI portion of setup, it will not boot. Obviously becuase the bios has the controller as the nvraid controller and it is supposed to be a raid 0 array, so I expected that.
Short of rewriting the mbr, either by deleting it or by changing each drive by formatting/partitioning/installing an OS on them, I cannot think of how to fix this. I know the drives and xp cd's work because I have already installed with them.
I understand what to do in the bios portion, and in the raid setup utility portion. I know that I can boot into windows as a single drive and use the nvraid tool to set it up, but that is not the way it should be, and that is not the way I am going to learn WHY this is happening.
Roger that. First set in bios enable raid (in this bios I have to enable IDE array, then choose which controller to actually enable raid on, which happens to have been SATA 1 & 2).
Second, upon reboot, I use the F10 key to enter raid utility. Then, set to striping, set stripe size (which was one of the things I am testing), and add the drives to the array. Next step is to create it. It asks to clear disc data, and it is done.
Have deleted that array as well as just cleared it. Have deleted it and reboot and rebuild it. Have deleted it, reboot, change bios back to non-raid, reboot. Reboot. Change bios back to raid enabled. Reboot. Rebuild array in raid utility, reboot. Run setup, only see 2 hdd's, not one array.
Umm, yep, that is about it.
More to the story now.
From some other posts I tried this.
1. destroy array. reboot. disable raid in bios. reboot. verify sata's visible as singles in bios.
2. power down. pull plugs on sata's. reboot. no drives visible.
3. pull power. jumper clear cmos. wait 60 seconds. re-pin jumper. power up.
4. verify no drives. verify default bios settings. all is good
5. plug drives in. reboot. seen as singles. erase mbr on both drives. reboot
6. enable raid in bios, and choose sata 1 & 2 as "enabled". reboot.
7. use F10 key to setup raid. Here is the interesting part. Even though I deleted the array prior to all of this, and removed the drives to force an ESCD update, and cleard the cmos with the board jumper, and then before raid was enabled, cleared the mbr on the drives, when I started the raid utility, the array was already set up. That is the problem, whatever that is. I have read snippets where it is claimed that this chip or bios or whatever stores some kind of a table on this stuff, but this is a bit out of hand.
That combination, IMO, should have cleared anything out. But, the saga continues.
Thanks for you help BWM
[Edit] BTW, I have finally found a utility that will see a raid array and allow me to clear the arrays mbr. It is called SuperFdisk and is at ptdd.com. So far the only one that see's the 2 drives as 1.
Yeppers.
Started with v5.10 which came on a floppy with the mobo. Told setup to use both, nvatabus.sys and nvraid.sys. Even switched which one of the 2 I picked first, just to see.
Same thing with v4.27 and v5.11. Also tried it with just the nvraid.sys and just the nvatabus.sys (which obviously does squat for raid, lol)
Trying some new things now. Post in a little bit.
I am officially at 'Wit's End'.
Here is what I have tried now.
1.pull drive cables. pull power. jumper clear cmos. wait. power up. no drives
2.plug sata 1 in. boot. drive detected.
3.boot to command.com, run MHDD, which is a nice russian utility similar to Spinrite. Used this to clear the mbr at hardware level, and do a complete erase.
4. reboot to command.com. run superfdisk. erase mbr.
5. pull plug on sata 1, and plug in sata 2 with sata 1 cable. repeat the erasure steps listed above.
6. pull plug on sata 2, no sata plugged in. reboot
7. change bios to raid enable on sata 1 & 2. power down
8. plug in sata 1 & 2. power up.
9. inspect raid utility. no listing of any arrays. reboot
10. in raid utility, build array. did NOT clear discs. reboot
11. attempt install. single drives found again (used both drivers).reboot
12. in raid utility, optioned to CLEAR discs (funny, rebuild option is never valid).reboot
13. attempt install, both drivers, still seen as 2 individuals.
Things to note. When creating an array when presumably there are none, it assigns the raid array an ID of 2. Upon reboot, the ID is now 1. Don't know what difference that makes.
Also, tried the install listed above with APIC functionality both off and on. Also, when on, set MPS to both 1.1 and 1.4. In addition to this, each variant I tried manual HAL layers of, in this order, ACPI (the one that actually spells ACPI out), ACPI Uniprocessor, MPS Uniprocessor, and let it choose it for me.
So, here I sit in a barca-lounger at 'Wit's End', with a warm cup of java and a dinner mint.

Here is the final product on the floppy disk that I used to successfully install a stable raid 0 on the MSI K7N2 Delta 2 Ultra 400 Platinum ms-6570e motherboard.
On root of floppy, from driverset 6.70. (after much testing, I used driver pack 5.10 for my nic and smbus. I used the realtek sound drivers off the cd for audio. I have used every driver pack I could find, and while some did offer better I/O or read/write latency, this set in general provided the most stable environment. The only drivers I used were these floppy drivers for SATA, the nic and smbus just mentioned, the sound just mentioned, and updating the nvide drivers to mside drivers)
<from sataraid directory>
disk1
idecoi.dll
nvatabus.sys
nvraid.cat
nvraid.inf
nvraid.sys
nvraidco.dll
<from legacy directory>
nvata.cat
nvatabus.inf
I used the txtsetup.oem from the sataraid directory, but edited this:
[Files.scsi.RAIDCLASS]
driver = d1,nvraid.sys,RAIDCLASS
inf = d1,nvraid.inf
dll = d1,nvraidco.dll
catalog = d1,nvraid.cat
[Files.scsi.BUSDRV]
driver = d1,nvatabus.sys,BUSDRV
inf = d1, nvraid.inf
dll = d1,idecoi.dll
catalog = d1, nvraid.cat
To this:
[Files.scsi.RAIDCLASS]
driver = d1,nvraid.sys,RAIDCLASS
inf = d1,nvraid.inf
dll = d1,nvraidco.dll
catalog = d1,nvata.cat
[Files.scsi.BUSDRV]
driver = d1,nvatabus.sys,BUSDRV
inf = d1, nvatabus.inf
dll = d1,idecoi.dll
catalog = d1, nvata.cat
Now, it is important to note that I installed or attempted to install at least 50 times. Bare minimum. I noticed when I use this custom driver disc that in the GUI portion of setup, XP asks me for files from the disc. I tried lot's of different things to alleviate this, and denied some of them.
One thing that really bugged me was that the bios would see my #2 optical, slave on secondary IDE channel. A dvd/rw drive. And I could even start the setup from it. But, once I got about 3/4 through copy file stage on text setup portion, I would hang. Becuase the drive was no longer accessible. Booting from the master would get me to the desktop, but the slave optical was nowhere to be found. Updating the ATA/IDE controller to the ms ide drivers would get it visible, but I kept having issues with stability after I did that.
The most stable method I found was to use my above listing of driver files for the floppy, and when in GUI mode setup asks about NVCOI.DLL, I skipped it, ignored it, and did not let setup install it. That actually got me to the desktop, with access to the slave optical as a "removable drive". It even knew what the hardware was. It just could not access it. On a reboot however, back to not seeing it. This method however did allow me to update the nvide driver with the mside driver with no stability issues. So, for me it was a raving success.
Here are some links regarding the SATA RAID driver workaround:
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:jHbX5bNfGx4J:www.msfn.org/board/lofiversion/index.php/t51140.html+nforce2+nvraid.sys+ms+ide&hl=en&client=opera
http://www.aoaforums.com/frontpage/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=292&Itemid
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:J9UhG2Kd8W4J:www.short-media.com/forum/showthread.php%3Ft%3D32751+xp+2+sata+raid+0+seen+as+individual&hl=en&client=opera
Early on one problem I noticed was that in text setup mode of xp installation, there were long pauses that I have never seen before. I noticed that with both ide and sata installs. Also I noticed that when booting there was a really long pause when the xp logo is first seen in a sort of dim state till when it became bright and vivid.
Come to find out that this is a more or less typical scenario. Most instances that I read about were all pointing to the nvide driver. So, I found if I just updated the PATA controller to the standard ms ide driver, that went away and the whole system ran better.
It took awhile to figure out that if you install a driver with the nForce2 chip, you had to uninstall it or you will have issues. Herein was the main problem I encountered with the SATA RAID installs. The nvatabus.sys driver was required for an SATA RAID install. Omitting the ata driver was impossible. And for awhile I had no success updating the ms ide driver once I was to the desktop without major instability. Here are some links regarding the drivers for this chipset:
http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/latest-drivers-for-nforce-3-vt60240.html
In my browsing I came across some pretty interesting articles regarding ACPI. One thing I started playing with was the different HAL layers that xp installs on it's own, vs. me picking one manually (F5 key). I must have started the setup at least 50 times to figure out this: that this particular board does not give me the bios settings to install xp with anything but the ACPI Uniprocessor Hal. For instance, the MPS Uniprocessor HAL is much more responsive, but it lacks the IRQ's needed for setup to see the raid array. I booted to each one, some locking the system up, some booting OK. The one I found the best performance with early on was the one that spells out ACPI, not just initialized. (sorry, I don't want to look it up).
I seemed to be getting closer, but I could not find the needed bios settings to properly manage my ACPI, and since I was trying for RAID, I could not use the one that did work. Here is a link for that kind of stuff.
http://www.fceduc.umu.se/~jesruv98/info/acpi/acpi.html
Another thing that I did not like was being forced to use the dynamic overclocking feature of this board. I have a 333mhz barton core, and I have ddr400 ram. In optimized (fool proof) mode in bios, I was running asynchronous. I did not want that. So I set it down to run at 166mhz, with very slow and conservative settings on everything. Unfortunately, if I did this "manual" method, I was forced to use the dynamic overclocking. I thought I had that figured out. So I set everything to "optimized". But, as it turns out, the system had terrible stability without the dynamic overclocking set to at least Private. What this meant is that I could not rule out that my stability issues (corruptions and hangs and bsod) were from being overclocked even a tiny bit or not. And as if that were not enough, this bios has a special set of settings you must unlock to see. And one of those is paramount in achieving a stable system. It is called the DDR400 patch, and it is enabled by default. So, by pressing SHIFT+f2 AND CTRL+F3, these settings are now available. Like I said, I had to disable that DDR400 patch setting.
I also found out from the first day that my board shipped with the latest bios. I flashed the 2 prior versions with no success in more stability. After about 6 weeks of getting whipped on by this board, I found mention of some modded bios's for this board. I have used modded bios's in the past, some worked wonders, others required some serious effort to recover from. What I found out about this board is that there are 2 players who make the modded bios's. Here is the first index I found from a german website. This one actually is for the older B4 version only for the Platinum.
http://storage-raid-forum.de/viewtopic.php?t=2824
And here is an english forum for pretty much the same thing
http://www.nforcershq.com/forum/bios-mods-for-k7n-and-k8-boards-vt55014.html
These links have a bit more information, and I decided to go with these. I tried versions b61,b62 and b71. I found b71 to work the best for me. Mind you I am not into overclocking or what-have-you. Just a rig that performs as well as it was advertised to do. Try these out for the bios information:
http://forums.pcper.com/showthread.php?t=385480
https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?topic=84715.0B62
Here is a page that had a bunch of misc stuff I found interesting:
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:QkvLeKcbwjQJ:www.amdzone.com/modules.php%3Fop%3Dmodload%26name%3DPNphpBB2%26file%3Dviewtopic%26p%3D75383+nforce2+ultra+nvraid+driver+freeze&hl=en&client=opera
In the end, I have, I think, conquered this board. My findings can be summed up as follows, all in my opion only I guess.
1. There are some ACPI/APIC issues with this board or this chipset. I believe it also included drivers and some can be attributed to XP.
2. There are some major bios issues with this board.
3. There are some major driver issues concerning SATA/RAID. I am not sure who get's the boob prize, nVidia or MSI.
The only way I have found to get RAID 0 installed and stable is to modify my bios (which is a modded beta version), modify my driver disk for SATA/RAID, modify my install sequence for those drivers, modify my drivers within windows after setup, use different drivers from different driver packs for different pieces of hardware, and modify my HAL layer after everything else is done, to achieve peak performance.
If I had not spent soooo much time trying to get a stable install, I would have built up an Unattended CD, which has some possibilities for forcing non WHQL drivers. But, hey man, I am totally burn out on this board. And all it was for is a spare LAN box for when I go to a lanparty. Sheesh. Murphy's law.
Oh, and I also found out, with my own eyes, that the Soyo KT600 Dragon+ that I dumped for this wonderful board, is way faster. Faster read/writes, faster throughput on the nic, faster booting, much faster installs of xp. As a matter of fact, I could get my KT600 to get a consistent thruput on the network to my older KT266a board at 99%. That is pretty fast. 2 of these Platinum boards, on a sweet switch that is tweaked, will only go up to 91%, no matter how much I tweak them. The gigabit connects via a crossover cable at about 38% of full bore. This is tweaked stuff, but still. I listened to the hype. Dual channel memory, giglan, etc etc.
I hope this may help anyone else out there who is still fighting with these issues.
Out.
sul

Hi, I need to remove that disease of a yahoo toolbar from my bookmarks toolbar. Just like windows it wont go away when I try to remove it, how can I get rid of this menace?

I cant get rid of the yahoo bookmark in my bookmarks toolbar, just like a disease it wont just go away, how can I get rid of this pest?

Hi,
You can try the suggestion posted here: [https://support.mozilla.com/en-US/questions/682742]
If that doesn't work, please describe what happens when you follow those steps.
Good luck!

K8N Neo2 Platinum - RAID Array Causes CPU Spikes!

I got my RAID array set up.
When I transfer files to it, my CPU usage (kernerl level) shoot up. It's around 100%, and it slows my system way down.
MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum.
RAID 0 using SATA ports 3 and 4.
I'm transferring files from my current windows installation to partitions on the raid array, so I can install windows on the array after removing the old drives.
I can transfer data fine, but using the array causes huge cpu usage which slows the rest of my system down a LOT.

Quote from: MurdoK on 19-April-06, 16:40:06
Hello !
Which SATA / Raid Driver did you install ? The ones from the nforce driver package provided by nvidia, or the original MSI driver ?
Go here:
http://www.msi.com.tw/program/support/driver/dvr/spt_dvr_detail.php?UID=607&kind=1
And download and install the SATA RAID Driver, make a backup of your Data first.
Greetz
Well, I have seen this post and it makes me wonder what are the differences between nforce chipset driver packages and the MSI ones if any? Thanks in advance.

My internal hard drive isn't being recognized on my macbook pro but when I put the HD in my Mac Pro (desktop), the desktop computer recognizes the HD. When I insert the installer CD on my laptop, it also doesn't recognize my hard drive. Please help!

My internal hard drive isn't being recognized on my macbook pro but when I put the HD in my Mac Pro (desktop), the desktop computer recognizes the HD. When I insert the installer CD on my laptop, it also doesn't recognize my hard drive. Please help! Thank you!
I've also been getting an image with the folder and question mark. I've tried everything on the apple support page but it doesn't seem to work either.

Well, I tried all of your suggestions and they didn't work -- no surprise because I was trying to backup to my external c.d. disk. Duh! The application for the home is in the mail.

Boot problems from RAID Array

I have recently reinstalled my system (K7N2G-ILSR).
It was working fine with a RAID array to boot (set to boot from SCSI in Bios).
The RAID array is 1 SATA drive with 1 IDE on IDE3.
I have 2 additional IDE HDDs and 2 Optical Drives (On IDE1&2).
I also have a SCSI controller with one external drive.
While reinstalling I had problems in the windows installer - after partitioning and copying files it would try to reboot, and would then come up NTLDR missing.
I initially thought it must be some confusion with my external SCSI drive trying to boot, but removing made no odds.
I ultimately had to unplug all my non raid HDDs, and it would then boot no problem at all. Unfortunately having got it working, every time I try to plug any IDE HDD back in, it goes back to NTLDR Missing on boot (this is despite boot being set to SCSI in bios, IDE isnt even later in the boot sequence!)
I need to be able to reconnect my drives, but cant find anything comparable in the forum.
Why does it matter if I connect an IDE drive at all when it is set to boot from SCSI (RAID)? Is my bios corrupt or something?
Thanks for any help!
Martyn

Thanks Noby and Richard for the advice, and sorry I have been slow to read it - I've been away.
I'm not sure I didn't do my last installation in exactly the way you describe anyway. Still, it's probably worth another go.
I was hoping for an easy solution without reinstalling yet again, since the system is working albeit with only the RAID array connected.
Assuming the other drives do now have an MBR written to them, even if I reinstall windows without them connected, will they not still cause problems when reconnected?
Am I looking at having to wipe the drives and start again with them too?
Even if I do this, does formatting a drive wipe any MBR on it?
Is there not some way to directly edit the boot record on each drive when windows installer doesn't figure it out right?
Sorry for the multitude of questions but I have had this problem time and time again and never found a reliable solution - last time it seemed simple chance that I ever got the board working!
Thanks again
Martyn

Problem Installing 817 on Windows 2000 with RAID Array

I am having a problem installing Oracle under windows 2000 which has 2 x 60 GB discs configured in RAID array. When I run the setup program the cursor goes busy for about 10 seconds and returns back to normal and nothing happens !. No errors nothing.
However when I run the Object Manager in the ods_preinstall directory it starts but in the log file I get the following error message:-
02/14/02 09:46:18 : (892) : Error in IO Control call for disk PhysicalDrive0 (Error 21)
02/14/02 09:46:19 : (892) : The count = 28
02/14/02 09:46:19 : (892) : The signature is 0x443aa035
02/14/02 09:46:19 : (892) : Error: First Partition of the disk must be an extended disk
02/14/02 09:46:19 : (892) : Found the partition: 7
Any idea whats happening....? Has anyone seen this before. Do I need to do something special in teh RAID..?
TIA
Martin

Here are some possible solutions:
1. The installation notes state that you must be logged on as Administrator to be able to install 9i. Are you logged on as the Administrator? Being logged on as user01 with Administrator priviledges isn't the same as Administrator.
2. Is the disk full? If I remember my installation correctly, I needed 3 times the size of the files. The documentation will tell you how much space you need.
Hope these two questions help
Regards,
Michael

RAID Arrays and WinXP Home

OK... I tried upgrading to Win XP 64-bit, but found there were games and applications that were screwy there and some items without 64-bit drivers, etc. So, I rolled back to a clean install of XP Home (32-bit).
After much effort, I was told today at a local techie-store that XP Home "doesn't allow for RAID arrays."
True?
I have 2 Hitachi 160GB drives I got last week at the afore-mentioned store for $112 US total! So, I am trying to make it all work, but am having no luck.
Any thoughts?
Scott in Los Angeles

There is a way to make some versions of windows do a software RAID, but the MSI board has a VIA and a Promise hardware array. Don't worry about what the 'techie' said.
Enable Promise controller in BIOS and set it for RAID.
Press Ctrl & F when prompted to set up your RAID array.
Boot to Windows CD
Press F6 when prompted and insert your Promise RAID disk.
Enjoy!

[VIA] K7T266 PRO- RU motherboard: Windows XP on a RAID ARRAY (fasttrak100 LITE)

Hi All!
I have a
MSI K7T266 PRO- RU motherboard, BIOS is the latest, official from MSI website,
Problem short description: Windows XP (sp1 or sp2 english, I tried both)
will not install when I set 2 x 40 Gig = ~80 Gig Stripe Array.
detailed description:
motherboard K7T266 PRO- RU BIOS 1.9 AMI BIOS.
AMD ATHLON XP 1700 + "Palomino" microprocessor, at default speeds.
one piece of 512 PC 3200 RAM, can tell details later.
Power supply: 400 W CODEGEN model : 300X.
HDD-s : one IBM deskstar, fully functional, and a SEAGATE barracuda. seagate SEATOOLS, IBM DFT 32 no errors both.
I set in the FASTTRAK 100 LITE "PDC20276R" (written on the chip) bios a STRIPE array. Powerquest drive magic , or the Windows XP CD handles it fine , as a 80 gig disk.
I downloaded ALL available versions of the FASTTAK 100 LITE driver from the MSI website.
(only tried: MSI driver FASTTRAK 100 lite, the only available driver on the MSI website, and various drivers from www.promise.com) ( http://www.promise.com/support/download/download2_eng.asp?productId=15&category=driver&os=0&go=GO ) (but I guess they WONT support my raid controller on the motherboard)
Windows XP CD , booting, Press F6 for additional RAID /SCSI drivers, I put in the floppy, choose WinXP fasttrak lite driver, windows continues, even formatting the 80 GIG disk, copy files- access the FASTTRAK.SYS driver, EITHER it says: no fixed disk present, press F3 to exit windows setup, or windows setup continues, copies files, reboots, and then STOP ERROR
http://www.martin555.dyndns.org/stop.jpg
please, help me with the following:
how to install XP on a raid array.
is it worth, will it be little bit faster disk load times etc?
is it secure if I trust the HDD-s?
any clue, how to overclock the AMD 1700+ athlon XP palomino to its maximum, but still stability?
AND : I read a lot about some MOD-ded BIOS called " KUNIBERT" , which makes the LITE raid to a FULL RAID and some other extras? where to get it and what to do?
email me if you can martin5 "at" freemail.hu
THANKS !

pardon me, dump? my english is not very perfect.. you mean to trow away, replace to something better, more stable power supply, more powerful?
you must see... first I would like to resolve the "installing XP on a raid array" problem,( how is it possible, is it worth, will it speed up hard disk access and load times... etc... ) and after that maybe I will OC the machine...
it is now , with a 8 cm ventillator and a large aluminium cooler 39 Celsius IDLE and goes to 45 Celsius during EVEREST benchmarking test. (temperatures on 1700+ default setting and OC-'d to 1900+. just experiencing with it. ) (I saw the toms hardware guide movie , smoking processors..)
cheers, Marton.

I would like to migrate from Aperture. What happens to my Masters which are on a RAID array and then what do I do with my Vault which is on a separate Drive please ?

I am sorry, but I do noisy understand what happens to my RAW original Master files, which I keep offline on a RAID array and then what I do with my Vault which as all my edited photos ? Sorry for such a simple question, but would someone please help my lift the fog ?
Thanks,
Rob

Dear John ,
Apologies, as I am attempting to get to the bottom of this migration for my wife ( who is away on assignment ) and I am not 100% certain on the technical aspects of Aperture, so excuse my ignorance.
She has about 6TB worth of RAW Master images ( several 100 thousand ) which, as explained, are on an external RAID drive. She uses a separate Drive as a Vault . Can I assume that this Vault contains all of her edits, file structures , Metadata, etc ?
So, step by step........She can Import into Lightroom her Referenced Masters from her RAID and still keep them there ? Is that correct ?
The Managed Files that are backed up by her Vault , are in the pictures folder of her MacPro, but not in a structure that looks like her Aperture library ? This means Lightroom will just organize all the Managed files, simply by the date in the Metadata ? Am I correct ( Sorry for being so tech illiterate ).
How do I ensure she imports into Lighgtroom in exactly the same format as she runs her workflow in Aperture ? ( Projects, that are organized by year and shoot location and Albums within those projects with sub-locations, or species , etc ). What exactly do I need to do in Aperture please to organize Managed Files to create a mirror structure of Aperture on my internal Hard Drive ?
There are a couple of points I am unsure about in regard to Lightroom. Does it work in the same way as Aperture ? Meaning, can she still keep Master Files on an external RAID and Lightroom will reference them ? If the answer is yes, how do you back up your Managed ( edited ) work in Lightroom ? ( Can you still use an external Drive as a Vault ? ) . Will the vault she uses now be able to continue to back up Managed Files post migration ?

Can RAID array be bootable startup?

I have a striped RAID array that I have connected to my iMac by Firewire 800, an external USB drive using USB 2.0, and another external HD connected on Firewire 400. Using SuperDuper!, I've been trying without success to make bootable clones on these three HDs. Even though the cloning seems to go well, when I hold down the option key on startup, the drives don't show up. Are these configurations all capable of being bootable startups? Any suggestions on why they don't show up?

Hi William, Happy Holidays!
Supposedly they are, but I've never actually tried the FW/USB combo Raid, tried both seperately in RAID, Which, BTW, I would not recommend, the longest I've had a RAID go is 6 months before destructing themselves beyond recovery.
Also, I should point out that a single FW/800 Boot drive will be faster than a FW/800 USB combo Raid due to the slowness of USB2. I get around 69 MB/Sec with FW/800, and 29 MB/Sec with a 4 drive USB2 RAID, around 20NB with a 2 drive USB2 RAID!

RAID array became drive F: instead of C:

Hm... when installing Win XP new on my new system, the RAID array (which is bootable and has the op.system) became drive F: and my ZIP drive is now drive C: 8o
It wouldn't bother me too much, but some software insists on being de-compressed to C: during installation - good thing that not one of my CD-ROMs became drive C: , lol
Any way to change the drive assignment so that the array would become C: ?
On my earlier K7T266Pro2-RU, I had no such phenomenon ?(

changing it is childs play, however you cant do it.
first ill tell you how, then ill tell you why you can't.
ok, goto control panel, then administrator options, then computer management, then select Disk Management
Down on the left hand side at the bottom you should see your disks and Cd drives etc with there current letters, right click and slect new letter, but you can use a letter already in use, so the one on C or D you want to use, change first to H or whatever, then change the one thats wrong to what it should be and then change back your drive to C or D or what you want it to be.
But, why can't you change it?
Because all the root paths for windows will be pointing to F:\ and if you change to C:\ you may well find gods unholy mess on boot up. Thats if it even boots up.
Way to do this is boot PC with only CD and hard disk on, when XP is all happy make sure letters are ok, and then start adding devices and changing letters.
When all service packs and updates installed and win XP totally happy, at that point i suggest doing the activation, not before, incase something goes wrong and you need to reinstall.
hope that helped..

Reccomended RAID array 0 hdd disks

What hdd would you reccomend to set up a raid array (RAID 0) on MSI K8 Neo? Preferably Maxtor, Seagate or Hitachi. Any problems (like max capacity, etc.) while setting up this array?

Quote
Originally posted by D_o_S
Why wouldn't you "trust" RAID 0? I want to boost performance rather than security (don't need extra backups). Why is the onboard Promise controller "bad"? I think it looks like a quite good solution (double bandwith).
First, everyone needs backups unless they dont need their data (see note about "rm -Rf /" later).
Second, IMHO on board RAID solutions (which are all software raid to date) are just gimmicks, pointless chrome, feeping creatureitis; in bygone days added to convince gullible users that product A was actually better than product B rather than just product B with extra IDE connectors whacked on it. They are an approximation of a serious tool, like any serious tool it is dangerous in the hands of amateurs; doubly so when the tool is a low budget immitation of the real thing. I have invested many hours dealing with the results of software raid in businesses where some code-mokey thought they had a clue and decided to make the server perform "better"; likewise rebuilding (without RAID) the dead machines of friends who thought it made their home PC faster, in most cases they found it faster without RAID-0...
which leads to...
I dont see the obsession with RAID 0 (likewise I dont understand why people rampantly benchmark their home machine, does it play at 1280x1024 and 60fps?? then its fast enough), it just doesnt offer any benefit or improvement in real performance for the vast majority of users (I *DO* use hardware ultra wide scsi Raid0+1 on my serious box, so I have some frame of reference here)... sustained data transfer rates from a RAID-0 with 10k rpm ultra wide scsi drives are negligibly faster than that from an individual drive of the same type. Sure, interleaving and cascading caches do allow for more prompt access of tables and regularly used small files which helps databasing and sci apps but little else, furthermore tcq and prefetch are rapidly eating into these advantages with modern drives. Frankly, Id rather have the 8~12% of the CPU used by the on-board raid controller to do the raid work for flinging rectangles around (assuming you play games). To each their own, however, if you want to do it, do so.
Third, I dont "trust" any solution which has only unrecoverable failure modes (not so true with advanced hardware raid controllers, but completely true from software raid.), take this on top of the "dont see why" rant above. If you use a software raid controller, such as that on the k8t neo, you are at the mercy of the stability of your entire system, not just the drives and their controller. If your CPU/ram combination is flakey, if you overclock (likely if you are so performance obsessed as to want low budget raid-0 to begin with); then the chance of a catastrophic data loss is very high; ANY fandango-on-core experience can FUBAR a software Raid-0.
It gets down to this, how much attachment do you have to the data on your system? could you "rm -Rf /" (insert appropriate windows equivalent) without flinching? if you could, then go ahead, but expect to have total data loss on a better than annual basis. SOFTWARE RAID of any kind is grade A stupid IMHO; HARDWARE Raid-0 (without a -1) is only marginally less so. RAID is a great tool when properly implemented on a hardware controller, but a tool which offers no benefit to the majority of desktop systems.
well, I think my opinion on the topic is clear now.
err!
jak.

Time Machine Server - external firewire 800 RAID array incompatible??

Hi all
I originally posted in the wrong forum... so here I go again...
I have an XServe G5 connected to an 8TB RAID array via firewire 800 (running latest version of leopard server) purchased solely to act as a time machine server for a whole bunch of machines. A lot of money and resources went toward this as this is a vital part of our office. One of the machines is a completely decked out Mac Pro with 4x500GB Hard Drives striped for multimedia processing. (Thats why I need a HUGE backup partition on Time Machine)
Now, this was working for about 4 months. Some computers still see the backup array as a destination, but can't write to it, (just sit there for ever "preparing backup") and one machine successfully is still backing up to it.
But for the majority of the machines, when I try to set the Xserve external raid array as a Time Machine destination for the network, it comes up with a yellow "!" sign and "This disk drive may not support Time Machine over the network. Get more information about compatible drives" with a link that points here: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306332
As you can see, that was completely not helpful, and now i'm wondering if I'll still have a job after the boss finds out I've just wasted his several thousands of dollars...
When selecting a backup destination for time machine backups, the array appears, but it always says "Failed" with an "i" next to Latest Backup in the system preferences, with the message "Backup volume cannot be found". Thats not true because i've so much as gone to the effort of actually mounting the dang drive in the finder... so its just not looking hard enough!
Here is some info about the external device:
It looks like a PC tower thing, with 8 firewire 800 ports on the back and 8 internal SATA slots. I purchased 8x1TB drives and inserted them in, and software partitioned them to create a giant striped drive (I understand that this might be a little unstable but its just a backup drive).
I daisy chained the firewire 800 ports on the back to output 2 cables, both going in the back of the xserve. Formatted fine, and works a treat. Except for the silly time machine thing....
I think what I am going to do is completely and utterly start again... go nuts one weekend and erase everything, every computer, every wireless router, everything, and start fresh. Since there have been so many little glitches here and there I just want them dead.
Well, if anyone has a quick fix, i'd appreciated it before the weekend

Hi everyone, Just thought I would give you all an update on how things went.
Lets just say that I got everything working fine... this is what I did.
1. I went through, completely un-raided and formatted the external 8 Bay firewire 800 drive
2. Completely reformatted XServe and reinstalled fresh (Probably not an option for a few, but I had a spare weekend)
3. Completely reformatted all client computers and reset all client accounts (Once again, probably not an option for most)
Essentially, I was starting out with a completely virgin setup and setting up for the first time. I installed the firewire 800 drives, and made them into a RAID again. Then installed Leopard server. Brought all the backed up files across, and when I plugged in the drive in Finder, it asked "Do you want to use this as a time machine backup" to which I said "Yes". It proceeded to create a backup.
When that finished, I went into server preferences, and selected the external as a time machine backup for the network. It worked...
I then went about everything like business as usual, and everything worked great. Still going... for now.
So thanks for all that helped, maybe try completely reinstalling everything and it may work.

Quick RAID array setup question

I had to upgrade one of the RAID arrays of one of my clients the other day. I had not setup the RIAD previously, but when I looked at how it was setup before it had 6 disc's in the array and one not part of the array.
Now I assume who ever set it up before assumed that the 7th disc would be the redundant disc. After looking at the way it worked and doing some calculations from what info RAID admin provided me with I came to the conclusion that the way it was set up would be 6 disc's used as the array with one being a parity drive so if a drive failed that one would take over. On top of that they had another disc that was basically useless as it was not incorporated into the raid at all.
The way I have set it up is that all 7 discs are part of the array so they have 6 disc's working with one fail over that would be the 7th meaning no disc's are wasted.
Which way is correct is my question.

I assume your predesessor left one disk as a hot spare.
Whenever a disk from a raid set fails, the raid set will be rebuild with the hot spare disk. The bad disk can be swapped and will be the hot spare from then.
Configuarions like this will give you the highest availability, but will cost you the most. Netto you will have the amount of 5 out of 7 disks. (1 for parity and 1 for hot spare).
Note that in a raid5 set the parity is spread over all raid disks. There is not such a thing as a 'paritydisk'. The term paritydisk is hust for mathmatics purposes.
Regards
Donald

RAID Array being blown away when CamCorder inserted or removed

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